The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-275479, filed Sep. 11, 2001, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motorcycle including a cowling for covering an upper front portion of a vehicular body, and a window screen provided over said cowling in such a manner as to be tilted toward the rear side of said vehicular body.
2. Description of Background Art
A motorcycle having a transparent window screen provided over a cowling for covering an upper front portion of the motorcycle body is known. During the running of these motorcycles, inconveniences often occur that the pressure on the rear side of the cowling becomes negative, and the window screen becomes cloudy. To cope with such inconveniences, an attempt has been made to provide a running wind inlet in part of the cowling or in a space between the cowling and the window screen. The purpose of this attempt is to feed running wind rearwardly of the cowling. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 3-65483 has disclosed a technique in which a running wind inlet is provided between an upper front edge portion of a cowling and a lower edge portion of a tilt angle variable type window screen. The window screen disclosed in this document includes a swing arm that is connected to the window screen and is turnable around the lower end portion, and a drive unit such as an electric motor for turning the swing arm. With this configuration, the tilt angle of the window screen is changed by the swing arm driven by the electric motor. The tilt angle of the window screen is set on the basis of a running speed, by a driver, so as to prevent the driver from being touched by running wind.
The above-described related art window screen for a motorcycle, however, has a problem. Since the window screen is configured such that the upper end thereof is turned around the lower end thereof, when the upper end is turned forwardly, a distance between the window screen and a driver becomes large. During running of the vehicle, the enlargement between the window screen and the driver tends to cause a negative pressure in a space between the window screen and the driver. As a result, a back pressure is applied to the driver in the direction from the rear side to the front side of the vehicular body. Such a back pressure may cause driving of the motorcycle to be uncomfortable.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention has been developed. An object of the present invention is to provide a motorcycle including a window screen which, during running of the vehicle, is capable of suppressing the running wind touching the driver, and therefore, is capable of reducing the back pressure applied to the driver.
To solve the above-described problem, according to the motorcycle of the present invention, a motorcycle is provided with a cowling for covering an upper front portion of a vehicular body, and a window screen provided over the cowling in such a manner as to be tilted as nearing the rear side of the vehicular body. The motorcycle further includes a moving unit for moving the window screen almost along a tilt direction.
According to the present invention, since the position of the window screen can be changed, the driver can be prevented from being touched by running wind by changing the position of the window screen depending on a running speed. Also, since the window screen is moved almost along the tilt direction by the moving unit, the window screen can be moved without any enlargement of a distance between the window screen and the driver. As a result, even if the position of the window screen and the running speed are changed, it is possible to suppress a back pressure applied to the driver.
In this motorcycle, preferably, the moving unit includes a guide portion provided on the cowling in such a manner as to extend along the tilt direction, a movable portion movably supported by the guide portion, a drive unit for moving the movable portion along the guide portion, and a coupling portion for coupling the window screen to the movable portion. With this configuration, the window screen can be moved along the guide portion on the basis of a driving force of the drive unit.
In this motorcycle, preferably, the coupling portion includes a first member fixed to the movable portion in such a manner as to extend along the tilt direction, and a second member fixed to the window screen. Further, the first member has a fixing portion capable of fixing the second member to the first member at one of a plurality of different positions in the tilt direction. With this configuration, the position of the window screen can be changed by manually changing the fixing position of the second member to the first member.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.